Louisiana incomes show third-largest drop in U.S. in 2016

Louisiana posted the country’s third-largest decline in real personal income in 2016, new federal data show, with incomes dropping 1.9 percent compared to the year before.

The Bayou State was one of eight states in the U.S. to have declining real personal income in 2016, the latest year data is available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real personal income is defined as a state’s current-dollar personal income adjusted by the state’s regional price parity and the national personal consumption expenditures price index.

The U.S. saw a 1.1 percent increase in real personal income for the year, after jumping 4.7 percent in 2015. Percent change in real state personal income ranged from 3.3 percent in Utah and Georgia to -3.6 percent in Wyoming.

The Baton Rouge area saw a 0.6 percent drop in real personal income in 2016, according to the BEA report of the country’s metropolitan areas. The New Orleans area saw real income drop by 1.6 percent. The Lafayette region’s personal income fell by 7.5 percent. Real income in the Lake Charles region jumped by 4 percent. Houma’s income fell by 6.7 percent.

The 2016 data measures the state and its metropolitan areas in the midst of an oil price-driven recession in Louisiana.